What is the deal with the new patch?

[Jaedelyia]

What bugs me the most is the blatant lack of proper communication on all this. A few days ago :

We [...] will hold an anniversary celebration with great bonuses along with all new content.
This year's celebratory content is going to be epic, so don't miss out on it!
We've got something for everyone during the anniversary!

Take home message : Yay, we hold an anniversary celebration, for everyone !

Yesterday :

This isn't an anniversary event, rather content released on the anniversary

Take home message : There is no anniversary celebration. Just stuff that happens to be release at this date

Come on, Funcom. Get your fact straight. Either Sezmra message is extremely misleading, or it's just lack of communication at all level, both internal and with the player. It's correct that it was never said exactly that it would be a free "anniversary event", (even stating that "The upcoming anniversary is a great opportunity to make a new area accessible"), so there's no outright lies here, but making the parallel with the previous Halloween event and saying AoC will "hold an anniversary celebration" is misleading as hell. There's no celebration at all. It's just content unrelated to the anniversary. There's no special event, nothing for the anniversary in itself, except a special sub offer. No free goodies.

While we cannot hold grudge against either Cirith or Sezmra (they just made the content and hold the role of messenger, it's their jobs, I'm pretty sure they didn't decide **** about the marketing model), it's still baffling to see such a poor communication to the players.

Please, if you plan to release special paying xpack, advertise it as such in advance. Don't tease and bring a very unpleasant surprise on the release day.

Edit : Hivemind with Hedge, it said exaclty what I wanted to say one minute before me.

[goofy1]

I hope too FC give new mount roar and little fixed armor texture (remove or fix spike on head and front legs) if not is new mount worthless for me

And new maps hmm what say fort is recycled Atzel and rest part of map is new but have buged places/textures then pls FC fixed it and maybe give new maps little more life (more npc and more trees houses ect...)

[Rathothis]

To their credit i remember the GD announcing a focus on more smaller adventure packs less than TUran in 2012 (?? not sure exactly), so you could argue they are kind of fullfilling a promise here.
...but i expected them to be a tad more transparent and honest about it. This can go a long way while the workload and cost would not have been affected (sell it as a new start of independant adventure pack series instead of something linked to anniversary). Same with naming policy. 4.6. was promised as crafting. There are certainly some numbers left between 4.5. and 4.6. to put this patch in and document it properly.

From JB's first GD letter:

One of the things I would like to get rolling on Age of Conan is a regular update cycle. Obviously things are a bit topsy-turvy right now as we adjust to the new team structure and internal processes, but when things settle down, I hope that we can deliver regular updates. That may mean slightly smaller updates than you are used to, but delivered more often.

I don't recall any mention of these smaller updates being B2P.

But the main issue isn't that they sell B2P content. Under your assumption that workload and cost remain unaffected, that wouldn't even be so bad. But the problem with your assumption is that it is incredibly hard to believe. It's by far more likely that the only guy working on AoC (Cirith... maybe Pyzerius as well but we haven't been hearing from him in a long time) had to prioritize this over content which has been promised to subbers for a long time.

[Yawgmoth-VDN]

There is a certain cold logic to exploiting the crap out of customers of games which have been put on life support. But the main trick in doing so is that you should not actively make your customers feel as if they were being screwed.

i totally agree. maybe my post was not clear about this, but it was a stupid mistake from funcom to make people believe that the content was free, and to let us discover that to access it we had to pay extra, just for the reason that you stated: even if it's not so much money, it makes people feel screwed!!

[Rousana]

well, besides if you buy or not the content, i do understand that this is a content that released during the anniversary celebration,
it could be released anytime during the year but they did it as ''bonus'' above all,
this is not the content for the anniversary celebrations, at least this is what i get ,
maybe i am right or maybe i am wrong, time will show...

[Kurt2013]

From JB's first GD letter:



I don't recall any mention of these smaller updates being B2P.

But the main issue isn't that they sell B2P content. Under your assumption that workload and cost remain unaffected, that wouldn't even be so bad. But the problem with your assumption is that it is incredibly hard to believe. It's by far more likely that the only guy working on AoC (Cirith... maybe Pyzerius as well but we haven't been hearing from him in a long time) had to prioritize this over content which has been promised to subbers for a long time.

Oh, i did not mean the workload and cost being unaffected by the development of these contents, i meant being honest and transparent would not affect cost and workload (at least in a negative way). Sorry, for being a bit unclear. And honesty and transparency go a long way when it comes to customer understanding. And there are still many fans out there who do wish the best for the game and keep playing and paying despite all the problems, treatment and handling they receive. But from funcoms view this is dangerous ground to keep going as before, since (especially if you watch the german forum here), there is a breaking point. And AoC still pays their bills a lot. More than any new credit funded game can ever do in the next couple of years.

I am not even sure Cirith can make his own priorities anymore (especially when he is the only active one or in a very small team). More likely someone up said "we need something for anniversary" and they made this (might even have been meant as free in first place) and then it got out as it is.
About the b2p, i am not even sure it was Nusquam as GD who said it. I remember a thread where it was asked, if the community would like bigger or smaller constant updates. I think i got my memory from this.

[Cosmicnerd]

Well, we are all angry about this but as long as there are players who are paying for this and getting the bear mount in just like Edit by Anzu: No. 1 hour after it goes live, they will try to rip us more.

Funcom really know how to Edit by Anzu: No. a game. They still don't understand why they keep losing members. Every damn step they take to make this game better, makes worse.

[Rathothis]

Oh, i did not mean the workload and cost being unaffected by the development of these contents, i meant being honest and transparent would not affect cost and workload (at least in a negative way). Sorry, for being a bit unclear.
I am not even sure Cirith can make his own priorities anymore (especially when he is the only active one or in a very small team). More likely someone up said "we need something for anniversary" and they made this (might even have been meant as free in first place) and then it got out as it is.
About the b2p, i am not even sure it was Nusquam as GD who said it. I remember a thread where it was asked, if the community would like bigger or smaller constant updates. I think i got my memory from this.

The last clear post I remember about the payment model was by Craig Morrison around the time when DS was released. He was very clear then that future content would be sub-based and not B2P like Turan. Obviously, FC's strategy regarding the payment model for future updates may have changed since, but I do not recall any official announcement or even a forum post in this regard.

But the real issue isn't whether or not Sezmra's last monthly update was misleading. Even if she had clearly written that the Vanaheim questline would be B2P, there would have been a ****storm. Because it's not a good idea to make subbers who aren't asking for much for their money feel that they are getting even less.

[Kurt2013]

Well, we are all angry about this but as long as there are players who are paying for this and getting the bear mount in just like Edit by Anzu: No. 1 hour after it goes live, they will try to rip us more.

Funcom really know how to Edit by Anzu: No. a game. They still don't understand why they keep losing members.

That is because numbers can deceive or at least be received subjectively. Any real professional business person knows this...
THey might sell a lot of copies, but they are only sold to an existing customer base, which might have shrunk even more after this. And by no means they can know now, if they would have earned more by handling things differently (like with the sub preferenced extended trial model compared to a proper hybrid model).

And i would not blame those that bought it now, because they might actually provide a service by providing feedback if it is worth it or not. And as i already said, for f2p players it might actually give some value for the money.

@Rathotis: Yes, what you mention might be the post i meant. So i might have misremembered it being b2p instead of sub based. I was just sure there was a mention of focusing on smaller packs instead of big expansions. You might be right about the ***storm, but i am sure it would have been better and less of an issue of "final drop" for many. And it could have been used and handled differently in time before the child fell in the well...as i already suggested above (make it temporarily free as anniversary event and then charge for it). Also i am far from blaming Sezmra, since i am sure there were orders from above that forbade her to talk too much detail...assuming she knew them even.

[Belch]

talking about the rings... they insist with this stupid "can only have one" thing...
like they doesn't know that it's bugged since ages....

seriously funcom, either fix it, or remove it!!

+1 /10 chars